The Discovery of Guiana

Title page of a Latin edition of the Discovery, Brevis & admiranda descriptio regni Guianae, avri abundantissimi, in America, 1599. Note the illustration of headless people.

The Discovery of Guiana is a book by Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote this account one year after his 1595 journey to Guiana, the Venezuelan region of Guayana. He also visited Trinidad. The book includes some material of a factual nature, but postulates the existence of a gold-rich civilisation (El Dorado) on the basis of little evidence.